2010/03/03

NGOMA 4 - Generation Bass



Continuing where NGOMA 1 stopped, this is an excursion into non-western 100 BPM urban beats and voices.

Heavy on Kwaito from South Africa, both more contemporary as well as earlier examples of the genre are presented. Arthur Mafokate with his track Oyi Oyi from 1993, for example, who is often referred to as the King of Kwaito, is both an innovative artist as well as pioneering businessman, having started 999, one of the first non-white record labels in South Africa. There are also offshoots from Kwaito, such as a style known as Guz - as represented by the track of that name by TKZEE. Also want to mention, in the classic Kwaito style, the immense talent that was Mawillies (rest in peace), whose effortlessly powerful voice graces the track GaGu.

tunes from other parts of Africa are also sprinkled all over. the AshThomas project is based in the US, but consists of members from Nigeria and other places. The incredibly clever DJ Rams who does Kizomba and Kuduro (or Kuzomba, a combination of the hard hitting aggresive and emotively smooth) in Angola; Marvelous Benji coming with the refreshing energy from Nigeria; and of course, Emmanuel Jal, the former Sudanese child soldier.

always great to find that one Bhangra tune on too many an album of otherwise generic numbers, and i have to sometimes edit out the bullshit cameo from some US rapper. far as cumbia goes i am almost entirely classics, you won't find any hipster blog-cumbia with shitty digital distortion and cliche electronic sounds on my mixes. and reggaeton, oh how i wish they still made them like they did in Panama back in the early 90s and even before. that percussive groovy sound exemplified by this huge hit by El General.

stream and single file download

separate tracks version download:
mediafire or megaupload or rapidshare

9 comments:

anonymousremains said...

hello there -
way back in 2006 you have
Morton Feldman - All Piano - John Tilbury | Matchless Recordings
any chance you could reup

: )

zhao said...

the winter is past and it's spring time... why don't you turn up the bass and bump this mix instead huh? :)

(i will try to reup)

Anonymous said...

I saw this posted on GB and was excited. I listened this morning and was not disappointed. This set is banging! I wish the titles/meta-data were on the mp3s, but I won't complain about getting such great music for free ;-)

zhao said...

download again, i replaced the earlier links with indexed ones!

anonymousremains said...

i did turn up the bass and bump this mix and found i went one or two steps beyond toe tapping, a not unpleasant experience i may have to repeat
: )

zhao said...

see this is what this blog is about.

getting Morton Feldman fans to bump and grind to Kwaito.

:)

Anonymous said...

columbian or colombian ?

Anonymous said...

Just played this and loved it- thanks a lot. Marvelous stuff. It's not often I jump straight to a second mix but I am on number two now.

Anonymous said...

Arthur's Oyi Oyi is from 1997, not 1993. He released "K*ffir" in '93, which became the first "Urban" song to be played on national South African radio.